Lotteries and raffles are gaming concepts that are used in many contexts, to offer games of chance in certain circumstances as well as to provide profit opportunities or fundraising for the sponsors of such raffles or draws and the like. In the Canadian context, people have been legally betting on sports for decades but are only permitted to make parlay bets (wagering on the outcome of 3 or more events). Recent changes permit wagering on the outcome of single sporting events.
Betting on a single sporting event is considered a fairer bet as it provides a knowledgeable sports fan with a better opportunity to win their bet. This means if you want to bet on the outcome of the Super Bowl you are not required to also pick the outcome of an NHL hockey game or European football match. It should be noted these wagers are considered games of skill, as opposed to receiving random scores as a raffle ticket.
Office pools have become a popular pastime for friends and co-workers to bet on various sporting activities. They are generally parlay bets as well, as most sports do not lend themselves well to betting on a single outcome game on a large scale. A home version of betting on a single outcome game can be built from a paper solution to alleviate some of the problems inherent with printing all the possible scores. A paper based sports pool for a single two team sporting match consists of creating a matrix of possible scores for each team, each representing a unique outcome for the game, and then effectively individuals choose one or more squares in the matrix on which they will be the pool participant. This is often referred to as a matrix method. Although this type of sports pool is easiest to sell, not a lot of money can be raised as there are few available permutations—for example in a ten by ten matrix only 100 permutations exist. It is not intended for an audience of any size.
An alternative to the matrix method of holding a sports pool is to print out all the possible scores, seal them in envelopes so the purchaser cannot know the scores that he/has purchased. Although this works, it is problematic selling all the tickets to a mass audience and if all the tickets are not sold then there may not be a winner.
Canada, the US and other parts of the world have enacted legislation permitting charitable raffles. These raffles although a form of gambling have been deemed to be in the public good and are considered to be gaming more so than gambling. To utilize the outcome of a sporting event for raffle purposes is possible. Rather than choosing the outcome of the sporting event, where skill is involved, a random assignment of final scores can be given on a ticket. This would be considered to be under the umbrella of a lottery scheme and not a raffle as a raffle has a certain winner. Lotteries do not require winners. In a typical lottery, players buy tickets with a series of characters or numbers from authorized vendors at fixed prices. If there is no winner, the jackpot carries to the next lottery draw.
While a lottery does not need to have a certain winner, a raffle needs to have a winner. The need to guarantee the outcome of there being a winner for the raffle has been a limitation in the prior art concepts of paper based or electronically facilitated raffles related to sporting events—since the sports pool may not sell all the tickets or the final score may be outside the range of the pooled numbers so there would be no winner. The present invention modifies the sports pool to ensure there is a winner and thus falls under the category of raffle not lottery.
As such in summary from the perspective of the background and technical landscape, the limitations of the current sports pool lotteries are evident:                a) The sports pool lottery in its current form should not legally be run by charities as it is a lottery and not a raffle. A raffle requires a definite winner. A winner is not present if all the tickets are not sold and the final score is one of the unsold tickets or the final score falls outside the range of what was thought as reasonable scores        b) In addition considerable risk may be inherent in this type of lottery as a pre-determined prize has been fixed based on the sales of all tickets and not all the tickets may be sold, yet the winning ticket has been sold. Although unlikely, if only one ticket was sold and it was the winning ticket the charity has a lot of risk;        c) The risk is magnified by paper solutions to the sports pool. The ability to reach a mass audience to sell all the tickets necessary is difficult to physically achieve;        d) Players can be left unhappy if they receive scores that are extremely unlikely or not even close to the real game. They may also be unhappy if they have received scores that only have their team losing.        
In light of the availability of venue based raffle systems and infrastructure—for example the hardware and software systems used for the sales of bearer raffles in sporting venues and the like (most often in the form of “50-50” draws and the like), a system which would allow for the fulfillment and sales of an electronically facilitated sports pool raffle would provide additional revenue opportunities and uses for that existing infrastructure. As well, the prevalence of internet access would make it desirable to be able to offer sales of a legislatively compliant and commercially desirable sports pool type raffle through a website system.
In order to overcome the limitations in the prior art the present invention provides an improved system and method for the conduct and administration of a sports pool raffle, using an electronic fulfillment process.